The brand new Q&A thread

doniago · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:45 am GMT

(sigh) More wiki updates...

But yay, a couple of my questions got addressed!

Thanks for filling in some empty spaces!!!

doniago · **Posted:** Wed Dec 26, 2012 2:14 pm GMT

It's been very quiet here lately...

Speaking in no way, shape or form as a wiki-contributor...(eye-roll)...

Some of them have already been covered (a few, extensively), but I'd like to know more about the origins of the characters' names, in cases where they haven't been discused previously.

Is there really a cat named Dom Drago? :p

MusicMan108 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:30 pm GMT

@doniago: Well, drago does bring to mind dragon-perhaps it means he has a slippery, serpentine nature?

Or it was probably just for alliteration.

My "hypothesis" is almost definitely stretching things.

CZProductions · **Posted:** Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:11 am GMT

Would you say that Mordecai is more like a machine than a person?

Tracy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 27, 2012 4:25 am GMT

Quote:

Some of them have already been covered (a few, extensively), but I'd like to know more about the origins of the characters' names, in cases where they haven't been discused previously.
Is there really a cat named Dom Drago? :p

Quote:

@doniago: Well, drago does bring to mind dragon-perhaps it means he has a slippery, serpentine nature?

No, there's no real world namesake for Dom.
Early on, I was toying with names like Dragonetti and some of its variants, but they didn't have the right character. I don't really know how to coherently explain names having character - phonemes just carry certain connotations, I guess. Anyway, I ultimately settled on Drago because it sounded a little more serious and to the point.
Drago is an old Italian surname derived from the word dragon. I thought the corollary was fairly obvious, actually...although not necessarily implying anything about the personality of the characters so much as the adversarial nature of his station. His first name I chose because it's also Italian, because its attenuated form Dom seemed to have a sort of simple confidence about it, and because there's a dash of righteousness in its full form, Dominic.

I'm not entirely certain what other character names I've elaborated on in the past, so forgive me if I start repeating myself.

Mordecai was Mordecai from the start. Sometimes the name is just already there. It probably influenced his character design on the whole to a degree, in some abstracted place in my mind where connections exist between sounds, images and personalities. The mord syllable and the deathly, murderous meanings it carries in any of a variety of words in Romance and Germanic languages is no doubt part of what made it feel right. Somehow, simultaneously, there's something goofy about the nickname Mordy that would seem to suit him in his more absurd moments, although he'd vehemently reject being addressed that way for all the familiarity it might imply.

Viktor's earliest inspiration was a cat named Roscoe. They shared the name for about five minutes before I began fleshing out the character and realized that name didn't work at all, especially for someone who had trudged over from the Old World. Roscoe somehow morphed into the Vasko portion of his name. For the rest, I spent a lot of time considering Slavic names like Vassily, but couldn't justify using anything so pretty. Although I had no sentimental attachment to or affinity for the name, Viktor kept insisting upon itself. I think it was something about the hard k sound in the middle...and the unkind humor in bestowing it upon someone so incrementally broken down as he.

Quote:

Would you say that Mordecai is more like a machine than a person?

Well, I'd say both, as aspects of the same condition. Whether he's a machine doing its job or the irreparable wreckage of a person clinging to contenders for the role of lost compass is a matter of which way you tilt your head when you look at him, I suppose.

doniago · **Posted:** Thu Dec 27, 2012 8:56 am GMT

Fewer characters than I was hoping for clarification on, but more information about their origins than I was expecting. Thanks!

Going off the wiki, the characters that you've provided background detail on before include Freckle, Ivy, Rocky, Viktor (though the Roscoe info is new!), Zib, Mordecai, and Nico and Serafine (a very little bit).

Thanks for this info! As a writer-type I love hearing where my fellow writers get their ideas from. If you've got the time/inclination to fill in any more of the blanks, that would be wonderful!

Needless to say (so I'll say it anyway), this will all find its way into the wiki one of these days...and by one of these days I mean possibly fairly soon. I think the wiki's currently updated for everything I've got through December 9.

CZProductions · **Posted:** Sat Dec 29, 2012 3:24 pm GMT

I don't know if this appropriate or not...but has anyone else tried to hit on Mitzi?

smarticus · **Posted:** Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:59 pm GMT

Well; Zib, Atlas, probably anyone who saw her in a miniskirt playing an uke, probably anyone who's ever bought martini mitzi a martini. Anywhere in those categories really. Mitzi's a looker.

Critanium · **Posted:** Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:45 pm GMT

The entire cast of the Godfather leaves in disappointment.

Kodyack · **Joined:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:49 am GMT **Posts:** 1

After browsing your comic I couldn't help but notice a gap between comic number 31 and 33.
Is this just an indexing error or was a comic there before?

Dolphinz · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:49 pm GMT

Kodyack wrote:

After browsing your comic I couldn't help but notice a gap between comic number 31 and 33.
Is this just an indexing error or was a comic there before?

Comic 32 was the one in which we discovered that petit fours have souls, Atlas invented the world's first computer in 1785, and that Serafine's father's cousin's ex-wife murdered Atlas. Sadly, its leak proved to have severely dangerous effects on its readers, so Tracy took the comic down to prevent any more people from bursting into flames.

doniago · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:18 pm GMT

I -knew- time travel would be integral to this comic at some point!!

calantian · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:10 pm GMT

I was wondering, Tracy, how deliberately you choose the flower motifs in your artwork. I am utterly in love with floriography, the flower language of the Victorian/Edwardian eras, and mused whether the symbolism of various flowers influenced your choices, or whether you decided based on looks. I mean, daisies are usually a symbol of innocence and purity, so they only fit as a motif for a bunch of gun-slinging gin-runners in a totally ironic way. On the other hand, marigolds are associated almost entirely with various negative emotions, such as pain, jealousy, and grief. So, uh, that definitely seems to fit.

Looking through your gallery, it seems certain that you do put some thought into it (Serafine's been depicted with roses on three occasions, Mitzi always gets purple floweres, Ivy has cheerfully yellow or pink ones, Zib the hinted-at opium smoker gets poppies...), I'm just hoping for a little elaboration on your choices. Thanks very much!

Graid · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:35 pm GMT

Tracy-

Further to the developments of the excellent recent updates, I have many questions, but since some of them are likely directly plot relevant and will be explained later, I shall try and stick to ones I think you might be able to answer without spoilers.

At what age did Rocky get 'the old unceremonious boot'?

What age was Freckle when his dad died?

Did Rocky become homeless after being booted, or was there still a place for him to stay for a while before he travelled across country? How did this affect his schooling?

Did he come back at some point and squander a second chance, or was talk of second chances only hypothetical?

@other people, I guess it's hard to remember to do this, but if you're not addressing Tracy it would be nice if you could flag that up by going @(other person) so that Tracy finds it easier to pick out the posts that need her attention.

MusicMan108 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:54 pm GMT

(for Tracy)

This may seem odd, but I thought of it a while ago and forgot to ask:

How's the secret passage work?

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